Chapter 19.—The Holy Spirit is Called the Gift of God
in the Scriptures. By the Gift of the Holy Spirit is Meant the Gift
Which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Specially Called Love,
Although Not Only the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is
Love.

33. Is this too to be proved, that
the Holy Spirit is called in the sacred books the gift of God? If
people look for this too, we have in the Gospel according to John
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says, “If any one thirst,
let him come to me and drink: he that believeth on me, as the
Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water.” And the evangelist has gone on further to add, “And
this He spake of the Spirit, which they should receive who believe
in Him.”10161016John vii. 37–39 And hence
Paul the apostle also says, “And we have all been made to drink
into one Spirit.”101710171 Cor. xii. 13 The question then is, whether that
water is called the gift of God which is the Holy Spirit. But as we
find here that this water is the Holy Spirit, so we find elsewhere
in the Gospel itself that this water is called the gift of God. For
when the same Lord was talking with the woman of Samaria at the
well, to whom He had said, “Give me
218to drink,” and she had
answered that the Jews “have no dealings” with the Samaritans,
Jesus answered and said unto her, “If thou hadst known the gift
of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living
water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw
with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou this living
water, etc.? Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that
drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whose shall drink of
the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water
that I shall give him, shall be in him a fountain of water
springing up unto eternal life.”10181018John iv. 7–14 Because this living water, then,
as the evangelist has explained to us, is the Holy Spirit, without
doubt the Spirit is the gift of God, of which the Lord says here,
“If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith
unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and
He would have given thee living water.” For that which is in the
one passage, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water,” is in the other, “shall be in him a fountain of water
springing up unto eternal life.”

34. Paul the apostle also says,
“To each of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of Christ;” and then, that he might show that by the gift of
Christ he meant the Holy Spirit, he has gone on to add,
“Wherefore He saith, He hath ascended up on high, He hath led
captivity captive, and hath given gifts to men.”10191019Eph. iv. 7, 8 And every
one knows that the Lord Jesus, when He had ascended into heaven
after the resurrection from the dead, gave the Holy Spirit, with
whom they who believed were filled, and spake with the tongues of
all nations. And let no one object that he says gifts, not
gift: for he quoted the text from the Psalm. And in the
Psalm it is read thus, “Thou hast ascended up on high, Thou hast
led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts in men.”10201020Ps. lxviii. 18 For so it
stands in many mss., especially in the Greek
mss., and so we have it translated from the
Hebrew. The apostle therefore said gifts, as the prophet
did, not gift. But whereas the prophet said, “Thou hast
received gifts in men,” the apostle has preferred saying, “He
gave gifts to men:” and this in order that the fullest sense may
be gathered from both expressions, the one prophetic, the other
apostolic; because both possess the authority of a divine
utterance. For both are true, as well that He gave to men, as that
He received in men. He gave to men, as the head to His own members:
He Himself that gave, received in men, no doubt as in His own
members; on account of which, namely, His own members, He cried
from heaven, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”10211021Acts ix. 4 And of
which, namely, His own members, He says, “Since ye have done it
to one of the least of these that are mine, ye have done it unto
me.”10221022Matt. xxv. 40 Christ
Himself, therefore, both gave from heaven and received on earth.
And further, both prophet and apostle have said gifts for this
reason, because many gifts, which are proper to each, are divided
in common to all the members of Christ, by the Gift, which is the
Holy Spirit. For each severally has not all, but some have these
and some have those; although all have the Gift itself by which
that which is proper to each is divided to Him, i.e. the
Holy Spirit. For elsewhere also, when he had mentioned many gifts,
“All these,” he says, “worketh that one and the self-same
Spirit, dividing to each severally as He will.”102310231 Cor. xii. 11 And this
word is found also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is
written, “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders,
and with divers miracles, and gifts10241024
Distributionibus of the Holy Ghost.”10251025Heb. ii. 4 And so
here, when he had said, “He ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive, He gave gifts to men,” he says further, “But that He
ascended, what is it but that He also first descended into the
lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same also that
ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and
some pastors and doctors.” (This we see is the reason why gifts
are spoken of; because, as he says elsewhere, “Are all apostles?
are all prophets?”102610261 Cor. xii. 29 etc.) And here he has added,
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the building up of the body of Christ.”10271027Eph. iv. 7–12 This is the house which, as the
Psalm sings, is built up after the captivity;10281028Ps. cxxvi. 1 since the house of Christ, which
house is called His Church, is built up of those who have been
rescued from the devil, by whom they were held captive. But He
Himself led this captivity captive, who conquered the devil. And
that he might not draw with him into eternal punishment those who
were to become the members of the Holy Head, He bound him first by
the bonds of righteousness, and then by those of might. The devil
himself, there219fore, is called captivity,
which He led captive who ascended up on high, and gave gifts to
men, or received gifts in men.

35. And Peter the apostle, as we
read in that canonical book, wherein the Acts of the Apostles are
recorded,—when the hearts of the Jews were troubled as he spake
of Christ, and they said, “Brethren, what shall we do? tell
us,”—said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins:
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”10291029Acts ii. 37, 38 And we
read likewise in the same book, that Simon Magus desired to give
money to the apostles, that he might receive power from them,
whereby the Holy Spirit might be given by the laying on of his
hands. And the same Peter said to him, “Thy money perish with
thee: because thou hast thought to purchase for money the gift of
God.”10301030Acts viii. 18–20 And in
another place of the same book, when Peter was speaking to
Cornelius, and to those who were with him, and was announcing and
preaching Christ, the Scripture says, “While Peter was still
speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all them that heard
the word; and they of the circumcision that believed, as many as
came with Peter, were astonished, because that upon the Gentiles
also the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out. For they heard
them speak with tongues, and magnify God.”10311031Acts x. 44, 46 And when Peter afterwards was
giving an account to the brethren that were at Jerusalem of this
act of his, that he had baptized those who were not circumcised,
because the Holy Spirit, to cut the knot of the question, had come
upon them before they were baptized, and the brethren at Jerusalem
were moved when they heard it, he says, after the rest of his
words, “And when I began to speak to them, the Holy Spirit fell
upon them, as upon us in the beginning. And I remembered the word
of the Lord, how He said, that John indeed baptized with water, but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If, therefore, He gave a
like gift to them, as also to us who believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was I, that I could hinder God from giving to them the
Holy Spirit?”10321032Acts xi. 15–17 And there
are many other testimonies of the Scriptures, which unanimously
attest that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, in so far as He is
given to those who by Him love God. But it is too long a task to
collect them all. And what is enough to satisfy those who are not
satisfied with those we have alleged?

36. Certainly they must be warned,
since they now see that the Holy Spirit is called the gift of God,
that when they hear of “the gift of the Holy Spirit,” they
should recognize therein that mode of speech which is found in the
words, “In the spoiling of the body of the flesh.”10331033Col. ii. 11 For as the
body of the flesh is nothing else but the flesh, so the gift of the
Holy Spirit is nothing else but the Holy Spirit. He is then the
gift of God, so far as He is given to those to whom He is given.
But in Himself He is God, although He were given to no one, because
He was God co-eternal with the Father and the Son before He was
given to any one. Nor is He less than they, because they give, and
He is given. For He is given as a gift of God in such way that He
Himself also gives Himself as being God. For He cannot be said not
to be in His own power, of whom it is said, “The Spirit bloweth
where it listeth;”10341034John iii. 6 and the apostle says, as I have
already mentioned above, “All these things worketh that selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” We have not
here the creating of Him that is given, and the rule of them that
give, but the concord of the given and the givers.

37. Wherefore, if Holy Scripture
proclaims that God is love, and that love is of God, and works this
in us that we abide in God and He in us, and that hereby we know
this, because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit
Himself is God, who is love. Next, if there be among the gifts of
God none greater than love, and there is no greater gift of God
than the Holy Spirit, what follows more naturally than that He is
Himself love, who is called both God and of God? And if the love by
which the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father,
ineffably demonstrates the communion of both, what is more suitable
than that He should be specially called love, who is the Spirit
common to both? For this is the sounder thing both to believe and
to understand, that the Holy Spirit is not alone love in that
Trinity, yet is not specially called love to no purpose, for the
reasons we have alleged; just as He is not alone in that Trinity
either a Spirit or holy, since both the Father is a Spirit, and the
Son is a Spirit; and both the Father is holy, and the Son is
holy,—as piety doubts not. And yet it is not to no purpose that
He is specially called the Holy Spirit; for because He is common to
both, He is specially called that which both are in common.
Otherwise, if in that Trinity the Holy Spirit alone is love, then
doubtless the Son too turns out to be the Son, not of the Father
only, but also of the Holy 220Spirit. For He is both said and
read in countless places to be so,—the only-begotten Son of God
the Father; as that what the apostle says of God the Father is true
too: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His own love.”10351035Col. i. 13 He did not
say, “of His own Son.” If He had so said, He would have said it
most truly, just as He did say it most truly, because He has often
said it; but He says, “the Son of His own love.” Therefore He
is the Son also of the Holy Spirit, if there is in that Trinity no
love in God except the Holy Spirit. And if this is most absurd, it
remains that the Holy Spirit is not alone therein love, but is
specially so called for the reasons I have sufficiently set forth;
and that the words, “Son of His own love,” mean nothing else
than His own beloved Son,—the Son, in short, of His own
substance. For the love in the Father, which is in His ineffably
simple nature, is nothing else than His very nature and substance
itself,—as we have already often said, and are not ashamed of
often repeating. And hence the “Son of His love,” is none other
than He who is born of His substance.